大象传媒

Aunty Barbara is now a farmer's wife in the mid west of America. She recalled these memories for a talk given to her local womens group a few years ago.

Noon, Sunday September 3rd, 1939. Aunt Annie and Uncle Aubrey came for Sunday dinner as usual. I ran ahead of Mom and Dad to greet them on the front lawn at Manor Farm near Coventry. I heard my aunt say 鈥� Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain declared war at 11am this morning!鈥� They philosophized, and came to the conclusion that with the speed the Nazis had raced through France, Belgium and the Netherlands, they would surely be here in a fortnight (2 weeks). I had visions of German soldiers coming on World War 1 motorcycles with sidecars, carrying guns, with instructions to kill even nine year old girls! I was scared. I ran into the house, not wanting to hear any more!

Convinced that the enemy would use poison gas, the government issued rubber gas masks, to be carried at all times. For the baby there was a contraption the size of a case of eggs (you put the baby inside). I forgot to take my gas mask to school only once, for the two mile walk home and back in the rain, was a painful lesson. Food was rationed 鈥� oranges, lemons and grapefruit were not to be seen again for five years. Kids were asked to gather rose hips which were used to make rose hip syrup as an alternative source of vitamin C.

There were only a few cars on the roads 鈥� only business travel was allowed. The middle east oil supplies were cut off, there was only the American life-line left. England has few forests, paper was very scarce, and to this day I hate to see the waste of paper. We no longer went to Grandma鈥檚 at Corley Hall Farm for Christmas and the other holidays. Besides no one had food to share for family gatherings, even if they could get there. We never saw any cousins anymore. It seemed as if the sun had gone under a big black cloud and never came out!

Coventry is a huge industrial city with many factories engaged in the manufacturing of cars and airplanes. So, in order to prepare for the inevitable bombings, dad made a fall-out shelter in the big field. We called it the 鈥渄ug-out鈥�. At the intermittent wail of the air raid sirens, we were hustled out from our warm beds into the dug-out. I remember it鈥檚 darkness, chilling cold, and water dripping constantly from the roof onto the wet board floor. On a steady 鈥渁ll-clear鈥� siren, we would return to the house and a cold bed! Some nights there were more than one trip to the dug-out, and the next day at school the teacher would never disturb a child who had fallen into a nap on the desk.

WE WERE IN A WAR!
I remember the November 1940 blitz very well. The moon came up full and bright. The fog had lifted. Soon after supper, like a hawk sweeping after it鈥檚 prey, the Nazi bombers came to annihilate the factories below. Bombs destroyed the roads, gas and water lines. It was impossible for ambulances and fire trucks to move about their tasks. The horrible incendiary fire bombs could do their hideous jobs now! It was eight 0鈥檆lock. I remember the bright orange glow in the direction of Coventry. The fires must have been awful! There was a steady trek of families walking into the country, some pushing baby buggies piled up with their treasures!

We had to close the big oak farm gate and put up a sign. My father was in the isolation hospital with diphtheria and we were all under quarantine. They could not spend the night here. The next night the Nazis came back to finish their job of further destroying Coventry. It was easy now 鈥� no electricity, no gas, no telephone, and no the roads were blocked with debris. The National Emergency Committee issued this notice; 鈥� The intensity of the recent air attack on Coventry, involving the lamented loss of so many lives has created a situation of great difficulty.鈥� It has been decided that the only course of action will be for everyone to be buries in a communal grave. This part of the cemetery will be, after the war, permanently dedicated to the memory of the air raid victims.鈥� There were 1561 persons in one such grave.

Pat, then Mother contracted diphtheria. Mom was in the isolation hospital for three months. Her Aunt Doll came and took care of us three kids and John, the hired man. On April 11th and 12th the bombers came back to demolish more of Coventry.

It was the night of July 4th, 1941. It had been my brother Roger鈥檚 twelfth birthday. The remains of his birthday cake was still on the pantry shelf. The Germans had bombed the docks at Liverpool very heavily that night. One lone German bomber in a hurry to return to his nest on the Dutch coast, relieved his heavy cargo aiming for a large coal mine. He hit a farm instead! Dad woke up to hear a piercing whistle 鈥� then the explosion! He jumped up to protect his pregnant wife from shrapnel and flying glass. He cried out, 鈥淗ey up, Mrs.! This one鈥檚 for us!鈥� Upstairs, the explosion had woken me up. Hysterically, I sat upright in bed. I remember hearing the clatter of slate roof tiles, and the sand and ceiling plaster falling on me. I can still that hole in the roof with the bright stars above. I climbed out of bed and out to the hallway, to find that only the staircase was left! The old part of the farmhouse was completely gone!
We met again on the front lawn 鈥� dad went back into the house to look for Pat. She was crying in our bed under a cover of broken glass and ceiling plaster. I remember reaching up into my hair 鈥� it was wet and sticky. Blood was streaming from the cuts on my head and face. Dad carried me, in a hurry , to the local Air Raid Station. During the early dawn I was rushed to a temporary hospital. (the big Coventry hospital had been destroyed in the November blitz). I remember the sickening smell of the ether anesthetic before the surgeon probed into my head. Later that day I was shipped to an American Red Cross hospital at Stratford on Avon, in an army ambulance 鈥� an old bus with stretchers on the sides. My head hurt, I asked them for a pillow. I vomited from the ether and someone gave me a pan. I wanted my mother!

I lay in a coma for 23 days, suspended between life and death. God did not choose for me to end my life here. He had other plans. He was to call me to be a wife to a man of German descent, in a country 5000 miles away. God was to bless us with three sons.

Infection was a big problem. Had there been penicillin it would have been easier. The nurses took me to see the soldiers in other parts of the hospital. They were pleased to see a child after lying bandaged in bed for weeks!

It was October before I was allowed to go home from the hospital. I had a new sister, Jean, born prematurely on the last day of August. She always cried so much! We were all crowded into a tiny hired-man鈥檚 cottage, so that later, I went to live with my Aunt Annie and Uncle Aubrey for the duration of the war. Mother had to make do with borrowed furnature, any dishes and kitchen utensils that people so generously spared. Her lovely rosewood piano was no longer useable --- and we had all so enjoyed Mom鈥檚 playing in those days before TV and radio! Some people said, 鈥淐hris, you have been so unfortunate!鈥� Dad always replied, 鈥淚 think we are the luckiest people on earth鈥�. The bomb was a direct hit on the dug-out! Thank God we were not in there, and are still alive.

Back in a new high school. I had no hair and was terribly sensitive about it. I felt I was different, and wore a scarf to cover the scars. Without warning I would fall into a seizure. I was asked not to stand in line with my class at the morning prayer service at school 鈥� they had carried me out a couple of times. I would awaken in the night in a terrifying nightmare, to find my dad standing by my bed assuring me that it was not all happening again!

It was the spring of 1944. I remember when the Americans came. One after another truckloads of young American boy soldiers came down the roads. They smiled and waved as they went by in the rain. We would wave back 鈥� they had risked their lives on the Atlantic to come and save us!

To prepare for a big invasion of France, only 19 miles across the English Channel, every available road was used to ship the military equipment from the Liverpool docks to southern England. Often it was done under the cover of night. I remember seeing the American boys with their 鈥渃omical鈥� hat congregating in the bombed city center where the bases assembled. Tall and short, black and white, they stood around to compare their life experiences. They were lonely in a foreign country and being together helped a lot. They came to free us and we were very grateful!

May 18th 1945. Then came the victory! The church bells rang again after being silent for six years. There were celebrations and laughter and Victory parades. I was a princess in our local parade! Everybody was happy! There was peace in Europe at last!

The sun came out again!

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